Disabled Adults To Be Given Care

Facility To Ease Aging Parents' Burden

HAMPTON — A new home for mentally disabled adults that also will ease their parents' burden is taking shape in a wide lot off Hampton's Briarfield Road.

When finished sometime around January, Briarfield Place at 1644 Briarfield Road will be home to 12 disabled adults, who now are cared for by aging parents.

Briarfield Place will be a single-story, 8,000- square-foot home, owned and operated by the Hampton- Newport News Community Services Board. Living space includes six bedrooms and four apartments. It will have 24-hour supervision by board staff.

"As much as possible, we make this a normal living experience," said Patty Gilbertson, the board's planning and marketing director. "We want it to look like your home, my home, only larger."

Briarfield Place's first residents are coming from their own homes. There, parents who may be getting too old to handle the time-consuming routines, feed, clothe and care for them. Though the "child" may spend the day somewhere else working or engaged in activities, the parents still have to get him or her up and ready to go.

"Imagine doing that with a child who's 40 years old, day after day," Gilbertson said. "There is no let- up."

Despite the challenges, Gilbertson said it's still tough for the parents to let go and place their children in a home such as Briarfield Place. They want to know "their child is going to be looked out for and taken care of. The last decade, there has been a move to develop these small residential facilities where adults with pretty severe mental retardation can live and be productive and have a decent quality of life."

The board serves about 11,500 people with mental illness and mental retardation, and are recovering from substance abuse. It helps them find housing and jobs. There are eight other homes similar to Briarfield Place around Hampton and Newport News.

The land is owned by the city and has been leased to the board for 18 years. The board first operated a home for emotionally disturbed young people there from 1984 to 1997.

Briarfield Place will be a good neighbor, Gilbertson said, despite concerns from one neighbor when the board sought city zoning approval. Ed Miller, of Garrett Drive, asked that none of the residents have a history of physical violence, sexual deviancy, or criminal activity. The man also asked that residents be supervised at all times and that residents be prevented from leaving without approval.

Community Services Board officials said then that it already follows such restrictions to qualify for a state license.

"We have just as much investment to keep up our property and make sure the value remains as high as it can possibly be," Gilbertson said. "We have no desire to bring down any property values. Quite the opposite.

"As we have proven that over time," she said, "we notice there is less and less concern."

Fred Tannenbaum can be reached at 247-4787 or by e-mail at ftannenbaum@dailypress.com